Green With Envy
by luvscharlie
Summary: Tonks is having a particularly bad week as a Trainee Auror. However, a surprise visitor from Romania makes her the envy of her class.


_Green with Envy_

It was a loud explosion but, honestly, it was a mistake anyone could easily have made. She was an Auror for Merlin's sake, not a herbologist. How was she supposed to know the difference between Bubotuber Pus and Stinksap? After all, they looked remarkably similar. Besides, who knew if you shook the vial really hard….

"How does a trainee Auror cause three emergency evacuations in one week?" asked Alison McMillan, a fellow trainee, to her best friend, Haley Smith.

_Just shows what she knows. There were only two this week. The other one was last Friday, stupid cow._ Alison had made it her own personal goal to make Tonks' life as unpleasant as possible since the day the two girls met on Platform 9¾ those many years ago. They had been rivals during their days at Hogwarts, and Tonks found it most annoying that Alison had bested her at everything, both at Hogwarts and during their training at the Auror Academy. It appeared things were not going to change anytime soon.

Since becoming Trainee Aurors at the Ministry of Magic six months ago, Alison had earned high praise in Ministry classes, a final requirement in their training. These classes were taught by Aurors, some retired, and headed by one of the most talented _and most handsome_ Aurors currently at the Ministry, Kingsley Shacklebolt.

Tonks, unlike _perfect_-Alison, had been on the receiving end of more than one of Shacklebolt's rants about having to justify all of the extra money he had spent in the past six months for "accident" clean up and repairs during trainee classes to Rufus Scrimgeour, Head of the Auror Department.

As if on cue, Shacklebolt rounded the corner of his office and saw her sitting there. He shook his head and gave a disgusted sigh before tossing a file down on his desk and moving to sit on the edge. "I swear, Nymphadora, if that explosion earlier was you- What am I saying? Of course it was you. It's always you."

Alison stood in the doorway of the classroom across the hall from Shacklebolt's office smirking when Tonks emerged. _Oh, how I would love to wipe that condescending smile from her nasty little face._

The only thing that made sitting through a final class today bearable was that it was a class Mad-Eye Moody was teaching, and Moody disliked Alison and Haley. The two girls were pretty, blonde with fair skin and light eyes, never a hair out of place and always dressed to perfection. They were a stark contrast to Tonks' bright pink spikes, faded jeans and t-shirts.

The first day of Trainee classes, Moody took one look at the two blondes and announced ever so loudly, "The secretarial pool is down the hall." Despite looking as though their only talent lay in the ability to style their hair and apply their makeup, Tonks knew Alison and Haley were actually talented witches. Nonetheless, Moody never missed a chance to embarrass them and Tonks loved him for it.

Tonks took her seat at the back of the classroom, as Alison took the seat in front of her. "So they still haven't kicked you out?" Alison sneered.

"Sorry to disappoint you."

Alison's attention was diverted when Haley rushed in to the room. "Allie, you are not going to believe who I saw when I was up in the Department for the Regulation of Magical Creatures an hour ago."

Tonks tuned out the girls' conversation as she stared out the window. Snippets, however, reached her ears.

"Even better looking…Merlin, his smile…the muscles…tattoo on his arm…always wished I could go out with him…Bloody gorgeous!"

Unfortunately, Moody had decided this last class of the day would be practical stealth training, a skill in which Tonks was most severely lacking. The room was magically transformed into a large forest, with plenty of underbrush in which to tangle her feet. She managed to fall three times, and failed to even once reach the individual with whom she was testing before he knew she was there.

By the time the class was over, she had mud on the knees of her jeans and several muddy smudges on her face. Her muscles ached and she longed for a hot shower and clean clothes. Alison and Haley had both managed to complete the task on their first try, without any mud getting on them and without a hair out of place. She lingered behind in hopes of avoiding any more conversations with either girl, and groaned when she heard their voices as she attempted to exit the classroom door. They were talking animatedly in the doorway of the classroom trying to get a better look at something in the hallway, when she shoved her way through them to get out.

"Excuse you," said Haley.

Tonks turned to look over her shoulder at the remark. "If you don't want to be pushed out of the way, don't stand in the door— AAH." She squealed as her feet were lifted from the ground and she was spun around in a crushing embrace.

It made the day's sufferings worthwhile, to hear Alison's incredulous tone, "What's **he** doing with **her**?"

The snippets of the earlier conversation which had reached her ears, now made sense. When her feet were once more on the floor, she looked into the smiling face of the best friend she had missed so much in the last few weeks. _He was a sight for sore eyes._

"Charlie! I didn't know you were coming home."

"Me either. They needed someone to bring some reports over from the Reserve and I volunteered. Fuckin' missed you, Nymph." He brushed his thumb across her cheek and laughed at the mud there.

She wrapped her arms around his neck and whispered in his ear, "Do we still have an audience?"

He responded in an equally low voice, "Yes."

"I promise I'll explain later," she whispered, before capturing his lips in a kiss so intense it left them both breathless.

He walked hand-in-hand with her down the hall and out of the building, with the weight of her classmates' stares boring into their backs. "Bad day?" he whispered, once they were out of earshot.

"The worst."

"Next time I'll owl ahead. I think I'd like to schedule future visits around your bad days, Nymph. There are definite benefits."

"I've gotta admit, you're a hell of a kisser, Weasley."

"I know."

Fin.


End file.
